Mystery Loves Company

Chapter 50 - File #6.5: The Unreliable Witness

Rhett

It was never a weird way to start your day with your roommate yelling about world problems, especially if he was Noel Winston. That's why when I was woken up by his amazingly loud laughter, I was wondering if I slept in the wrong room.

Noel was standing by the door, chatting so lively with two guys—one of which was Maxine's brother's Max. My eyelids were still so heavy but I guess nobody could easily go back to sleep after Max Fielder caught you staring at him.

"'Sup, Poopfeet?" He called. Of course, he was the one who brought that nickname back from the dead. I bet he forgot my real name. "I just got back from a morning basketball routine with Noel. I would've asked you to come along if you weren't snoring then."

I stared at Noel. "You play ball?"

"There's so much you don't know about me," he replied.

"Shocker," I rolled my eyes. "Thanks for the invite, Max, but I'd rather snore than to have someone score a three-pointer on my face."

Max laughed, "You're so funny. You should definitely come next time."

I declined his offer politely. My last memory of playing any sports was my PE teacher shouting "we need some ice!" before I lost conciousness and I wasn't intending for it to happen again.

"So, how's it going?" asked Noel after he sat down and took off his shoes.

"I was up all night circling around the Kanes' neighborhood and guess what? I found nothing," I yawned.

"Don't turn this on me. You were the one who said that the family was followed by someone from that group."

"I was assuming. And I felt stupid for listening to you because now it looks like I'm the stalker," I complained. "You know what, I'm just gonna head to the station and talk to the Chief, whether he likes it or not."

"Whoa," Noel stood in my way. "You're gonna tell the Chief everything without my approval?"

"What happened years ago wasn't my business so I'll leave that to you, but a murder suspect was wandering around that family and it happened recently. I don't see it with my own eyes, but the son saw him. The Chief could use this information to catch him, so, yeah, I'm gonna tell him."

"Look, as much as I want to help Avery and her family, I don't think we should tell the police without a strong proof."

"By 'proof', you mean the flash drive? Sorry, Noel, maybe it's really all connected, but currently, it's two different things."

"Have you talked to her?"

"In case you don't know, detectives don't exactly 'talk' to the people they stake out," I answered, but it seemed like he wasn't satisfied with it. "Okay, I'll be on the stakeout again tonight and see if I can talk to her, but I have to talk to the Chief. Since he doesn't feel like returning my phone calls, you can hope that he's going to reject me again. There must be something that bothers him, so I have to figure that out too."

He sighed. "Whatever."

That was a mouthful of explanation to Noel that I wasn't able to express to Chief Snell. I forced my way in to his office and kind of held him hostage right before he went for a meeting—and I just stood here like a fool, looking for a quick way to explain without bringing up what happened eight years ago. Noel was right, it was all connected and it only made sense if we told the story from the very start.

"You have ten seconds to tell me one good reason why I should be late coming to a meeting where I had to pull my best people out of their current assignments only to gather them," he finally spoke.